Scientific and technological performances (e.g., patents and publications) made through R&D play a pivotal role for national economic growth. National governments encourage academia-industry cooperation and thereby pursue continuous development of science technology and innovation. Increasing R&D-related investments and manpower are crucial for national industrial development, but evidence of poor performance in business performance, efficiency, and effectiveness has recently been found in Korea. This study evaluates performance efficiency of the 6T sector (Information Technology, Bio Technology, Nano Technology, Space Technology, Environment Technology, Culture Technology), which is considered a high-potential promising industry for the next generation growth and currently occupies two thirds of the national R&D projects. The study measures the relative efficiency of R&D in a comparative perspective by employing the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The result reveals overall low efficiency in basic R&D (0.2112), applied R&D (0.2083), development R&D (0.2638), and others (0.0641), confirming that economic performance and efficiency were relatively poor compared to production efficiency. Efficient R&D needs policy makers to create strategies that can increase overall efficiency by improving productivity performance and quality while increasing economic performance.

The R&D investment of Korean government has been concentrated into 6T areas-IT(Information Technology), BT(BIO-Technology), NT(Nano Technology), ET(Environment & Energy Technology), ST(Space Technology) and CT(Culture & Contents Technology) - for a couple